Raiders’ QB Carr posting respectable rookie stats

By Vic Tafur

Updated 10:40 pm, Thursday, November 6, 2014

Peyton Manning has thrown an NFL record 515 touchdown passes and won the MVP award five times. The Broncos quarterback is the face of the NFL and even dominates the commercials when the games take a break.

But once upon a time, Manning was Derek Carr — a rookie quarterback on a really bad team.

Carr is 0-8 with the Raiders, who host Manning and the 6-2 Broncos on Sunday. Sixteen years ago, Manning was 1-8 on his way to 3-13 with the Colts, and he threw 28 interceptions. Carr has only seven picks at the halfway point.

“Experience was my best teacher,” Manning said in a conference call. “There’s no question that I learned a lot of things that I would not have learned if I wasn’t in there playing. Learn from the good things and of course you’ve got to learn from the mistakes as well. But, I do think that being in there facing the live action is really the only way to learn how to play quarterback in this league.”

Through eight games, Carr has a better pass-completion rate (60.7 to 55.5) and the same number of TD passes (11). Carr beat out 11th-year veteran Matt Schaub before the season started, and has been loving the hands-on experience ... aside from, of course, the zero wins part.

“A lot of people learn in different ways, but for me I need to be out there and I need to see it,” Carr said. “For me, it’s been great. I’m looking forward to getting some wins going on, going into the last half of the season.”

Oakland Raiders QB Derek Carr #4 in action, in the fourth quarter in his game against the Arizona Cardinals at the O.co Coliseum during an NFL game in Oakland, Calif. on Sunday, Oct. 29, 2014. (AP Photo/David Seelig) less

Oakland Raiders QB Derek Carr #4 in action, in the fourth quarter in his game against the Arizona Cardinals at the O.co Coliseum during an NFL game in Oakland, Calif. on Sunday, Oct. 29, 2014. (AP Photo/David ... more

Photo: David Seelig / Associated Press

Image 2 of 3

Quarterback Derek Carr (left), struggling through a winless season with the Raiders, nonetheless has posted quality statistics for a rookie, perhaps even better than Denver’s Peyton Manning did with Indianapolis in 1998. less

Quarterback Derek Carr (left), struggling through a winless season with the Raiders, nonetheless has posted quality statistics for a rookie, perhaps even better than Denver’s Peyton Manning did with ... more

Photo: Jed Jacobsohn / Getty Images

Image 3 of 3

Raiders’ QB Carr posting respectable rookie stats

1 / 3

Back to Gallery

Raiders interim coach Tony Sparano thinks it’s a no-brainer, especially because his offensive line has done a great job of protecting Carr (he’s been sacked only eight times).

“Anytime you get this kind of experience, it beats the heck out of the other kind of experience where you’re just sitting on the sideline and there’s an unknown there, when all of a sudden you’re called in there and you have to do it,” Sparano said. “I think that Derek’s experience right now in game situations, game management situations, the things that he’s seeing, that he learns from every week — I think that’s a huge, huge value.”

It also helps if you are a mature player coming into the situation, which both Manning and Carr were. It also helps if you grew up in football families, which they both did.

Carr “appears, for a young player, to be very smart — I think ahead of his experience,” Broncos coach John Fox said.

And he’s only going to get smarter.

“If I were watching this as an opponent,” Sparano said, “that would concern me down the road.”

Briefly: Rookie guard Gabe Jackson, who has started every game, missed a second straight day of practice with a knee injury. Sparano hasn’t ruled Jackson out, though at this point it seems unlikely he’ll play. Ten-year veteran Khalif Barnes, who started the season in the lineup at right tackle, would take his place ... Cornerback Carlos Rogers (knee) and backup Chimdi Chekwa (hamstring) were also out, but cornerback TJ Carrie (ankle) returned and was limited in practice, as was defensive end Justin Tuck (knee). ... Receiver Kenbrell Thompkins was not at practice because of personal reasons for the second time in two weeks.

It’s folly to say that Derek Carr will have a career anywhere close to the one Peyton Manning has crafted, but — based on projections — the numbers for the first-year Raiders quarterback hold up nicely when compared with Manning’s rookie statistics.

Comp-Att

Pct.

Yards

TD

INT

Rating

W-L

Peyton Manning (1998)

326-575*

56.7

3,739

26

28*

71.2

3-13

Derek Carr (2014, projected)

352-580

60.7

3,422

22

14

79.8

TBD

*led the league

1998: Manning’s first trip to Bay Area

Peyton Manning likely will never forget his first trip to the Bay Area as an NFL player.

It was Oct. 18, 1998, when the rookie quarterback’s 1-4 Colts came to Candlestick to play Steve Young’s 4-1 49ers — and lost 34-31.

Two weeks earlier, Manning got his first win as a pro against a San Diego Chargers team that would finish 5-11, and he was looking for his first signature win against an elite team.

The Colts jumped out to a 21-0 lead as Manning threw two touchdown passes to Marvin Harrison, but the 49ers closed to 21-17 when Young threw TD passes to J.J. Stokes and Terrell Owens in the final two minutes of the first half.

However, the TDs, many experts believed, shouldn’t have counted.

The Chronicle’s Ira Miller wrote, “In the final three minutes of the first half, Young threw two passes that were intercepted in or near the Colts’ end zone. Both times, the picks were wiped out by defensive-holding penalties. Neither penalty appeared warranted on the replays.”

In the fourth quarter, with the game tied 31-31, Wade Richey’s game-winning field goal was set up by another controversial call by Walt Coleman’s crew, a 27-yard interference call on Colts cornerback Tyrone Poole, again covering Stokes.